Wednesday

The Second Baptist Church in Houston got more than 2,000 people together to participate in a flash mob dedicated to the resurrection of Jesus. The unusual celebration called "Dance Your Shoes Off!" received over half a million views in just two weeks. The organizers of the flash mob wanted it to serve multiple purposes — first, to witness how quickly religion could go viral and second, to give to those in need. Each participant of the flash mob donated a new pair of shoes that would be passed on to underprivileged individuals all across the world.

As a great example of non-traditional marketing, Blake Mycoskie, the founder of Tom's Shoes, presented a "mystery box" containing a new product that follows the company's one-for-one model, but remains a mystery even to Tom's employees. The man whom Bill Clinton referred as “the most interesting entrepreneur I’ve ever met" offers only one hint: the company is no longer called Tom's Shoes, just Tom's.

The contents of the mystery box will be revealed simultaneously in over 200 locations on June 7, 2011. Until then, all retailers selling Tom's shoes will feature a seven foot tall cylinder with a big lock around it, as a floor display. For the first time in history, retail giants like Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus accepted to feature and most likely sell an unknown product. As the company's founder said, "The truth is what’s inside this box is not nearly as important as what it represents. TOMS is no longer a shoe company, it's a one-for-one company." [via SXSW & The Inkwell]

Tuesday

Granata, a German dog food company, recently launched an interactive billboard campaign that provided product samples to dogs. The billboard dispensed a small amount of food upon the dog owners' successful check-in on FourSquare--a modern take on Pavlov's classic experiment. The campaign not only generated new customers, but also went viral as participants' FourSquare check-ins were usually posted to Facebook as well. [via creativeguerrillamarketing.com]